Friday, June 25, 2010

Introduction to Our Beer Art

Of the beer paintings we've done in the last few years, these are some of our favorites. It has been a lot of fun paying tribute to many of the great beers of the world, from the utter insanity that is painting the bottles of Three Floyds, to the simple, elegant compositions like the Bell's Expedition Stout and the Rochefort 10, as well as more ambitious endeavors, such as doing a painted representation of the seven Trappist breweries and these cap-filled compositions of the great breweries of Belgium and California. We feel these paintings are a really special way for a beer fan to decorate their living room, home bar, beer cellar or mancave. Even more so for a pub or brewery owner, we feel our paintings make for an incredibly unique addition to a business. Beer may be a humble drink for the common man, but quality craft beer is inescapably artful and it only follows that art inspired by the beer should at least attempt to parallel the beer.

In the course of doing these paintings, we've tried to include brewing ingredients (chiefly hops), but the components that go into making beer are not inherently visual, at least not in the way that a beer crown, bottle, or branded glass are. As the majority of our works communicate, our favorite objects to paint are beer caps. The beer cap is such an immediately identifiable and essential object and the really great ones communicate so much about the beer and where it is made. Part of the fun in painting them comes from the massive scale shift between the actual object and the painted version.

From 2012 on, we won't be able to produce the volume of beer art that we did in 2010-2011, but we'll still do commissions and maybe the occasional non-commissioned piece. The cap-filled compositions below are great for commissions, as we can paint the caps of your favorite beers/breweries. We have be resistant to doing prints in the past, but it is something we are considering in the future, as the prices of our paintings will have to go up for any kind of sustainability. Should we do prints, they will only be from a few select original pieces.

Thank you for looking at our paintings, if you have any questions, comments, or ideas for a commission, feel free to email us at the link on the left sidebar. Cheers! Cara & Louie